Sky Sports wins 2016 BAFTA for Ashes coverage

Sky Sports’ coverage of last summer’s Ashes Series has been rewarded with a BAFTA at the annual ceremony in London.

The broadcaster’s cricket team collected the prize at the Royal Opera House after winning the Sport category, beating competition from BBC’s FA Cup final and Six Nations final day coverage, and Channel 4 for their Grand National coverage.

It is the second time in three years that Sky’s cricket coverage has won a prestigious BAFTA award, following its success in 2014 when it scooped the Live Sport and Event prize.

Bryan Henderson, Sky’s head of cricket, said: “It is just incredible to receive a BAFTA on behalf of an amazing production team.

“Huge thanks to the ECB and the England cricket team for their amazing Ashes performance.

“However, this award is dedicated to the many departments at Sky that do so much to support sport.”

The BAFTA award adds to the plethora of prizes that Sky has claimed for its cricket coverage in recent months.

Sky Sports cricket won three awards at the Sports Journalism Awards in February, where Ian Ward was named Best Broadcast Sports Presenter.

The Ashes won the award for Television Live Sports Broadcast as well as Multi-Media Sports Package for innovations in the multi-platform package.

Sky Cricket also won a Broadcast Award for its coverage of the 2015 Ashes, with Sky’s digital content really impressing the judges – as well as a live match blog, Sky carried regular columns from Joe Root, Mitchell Johnson and Steve Smith, while social media users clocked up 3.6 million views of near-live videos.

“Multiplatform, innovative coverage, which blended high TV production values with cutting-edge use of social and digital media,” said one Broadcast Awards judge.

Sky’s cricket coverage continues throughout the summer of 2016, with England taking on Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Test, one-day and Twenty20 series.

Additionally Sky will show a huge range of games from the domestic county cricket scene, including the NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup.